David Akin, Parliamentary Bureau Chief

OTTAWA - One of the NDP's strongest advocates for the CBC is being paid tens of thousands of dollars a year by the state broadcaster while voting on the CBC's funding and debating its future.

Liberal and Conservative MPs now say NDP MP Andrew Cash should resign his position on the House of Commons heritage committee for violating conflict of interest rules.

But Cash says the ethics commissioner cleared the way for him to debate CBC funding even though he has earned nearly $40,000 a year for providing music to the popular CBC television program Dragon's Den.

On Sept. 26, 2011, Cash provided a commitment in writing to the House of Commons ethics commissioner and to the clerk of the House of Commons that he "shall not participate in debate or voting at the Standing Committee of Canadian Heritage on matters to do with the CBC in which I have a private interest."